SEO 101: How to Increase Organic Search Traffic for Blog Posts

I have a very special guest post for you guys today. For the past few months, my friend Danielle has been helping me improve SEO for my blog. She’s phenomenal to work with and a wealth of knowledge so I asked her if she’d be willing to share some of her top tips with you guys since I know a lot of my readers have blogs of their own! Danielle is also a business coach, so if you need help with business strategy, social media management, SEO or blogging, definitely go check out her services on her website Danielle Zeigler!

So, are you ready to learn? Here we go:

What is Search Engine Optimization? This means optimizing your posts for search engines like Google and Bing so they can better understand what the post is about and what questions it will answer for readers. A nicely optimized post will rank better and reach a wider audience. “Organic search traffic” means visitors who find your blog through typing a query into a search engine.

When you’re thinking of optimizing your posts, you should be thinking of how to help your target audience, not just how to rank better or reach more people in general. Start thinking like your audience. What do they want to know? What questions are they asking?

How to optimize your posts:

First, let me stress that shareable, engaging content is more important than keywords. However, following a few easy steps can help increase your organic traffic and reach more relevant readers.

1. Keywords: Choose a keyword phrase or two that best represents your post idea. Ex: “How to cook spaghetti squash”

a. Use Google Keyword Plannerand Google Trends to find the most popular (most searched) way to phrase your keywords. Compare multiple phrases to see which has the highest traffic (low-medium competition is best). There are tons of keyword tools out there, but these are quick, easy and free, so start here. For the example above, other search phrases might include “best way to cook spaghetti squash” and “how to bake spaghetti squash”

2. Title: Your post title is possibly the most important aspect of your blog post. This will entice people to click, shows up in social media sharing, is usually your H1 tag for SEO, etc. Titles with the most clicks often include: “How-to”, “Mistakes,” “Secrets,” Questions (people are typing full questions into Google more often now) and lists. Examples include: “3 Ways to Cook Spaghetti Squash,” “The secret to cooking perfect spaghetti squash,” or “4 mistakes people make while cooking spaghetti squash.” Keep your title under 60 characters and be sure to include your keyword phrase. This will most likely be used for your title tag.

3. Title Tags: Google will show about 60 characters. Include keyword phrase(s), but don’t overdo it.

4. URL: Include your keyword phrase(s) — you can shorten it to use just the main keywords, use dashes rather than underscores, and use all lower case letters.

5. H1 tags & Header tags: The H1 tag is usually your post title. Make it engaging and include your keyword phrase(s). Secondary headers are a great way to break up the content. They also cue readers (and search engines) in on what your post is about if they quickly scan it. Use closely related keywords in the header tags.

6. Meta-description: Google shows about 160 characters. The meta-description is not used for ranking in search engines, but what you put here will encourage people to click on your link. Use an alluring snippet from your post, a call to action, or write a short introduction to the post, such as, what problem will reading your post solve for readers? Google won’t always use what you enter. Sometimes it will pull text related to the search query, but it can still be a good idea as a backup.

7. Content: I mentioned having engaging content. Make sure you also use your keyword phrases within your blog post. You only need to use a few related phrases once or twice. Focus on your writing and don’t keyword stuff*.

Bonus Tip: Use phrases to link to other posts you’ve written, too. This will keep the reader engaged in your blog longer and will signal to search engines that your blog is cohesive and organized. Make sure to have the link open in a new window.

When searching for “how to cook spaghetti squash,” this is what the post looks like in Google. Lindsay appears on the first page for this search.

In no time you’ll get the hang of optimizing your posts and be able to draw more organic traffic to your blog!

*A note on keyword stuffing: Keyword stuffing is when you use your keyword phrase as much as you can. Not a good idea! Google has evolved and it’s now recommended to use similar phrases so Google can get an idea of what your post is about.

About Lindsay

Lindsay Livingston is a Registered Dietitian and new mom from Columbus, Ohio. On her blog, she shares simple, healthy recipes, nutrition tips, workouts and snapshots of her life. Follow her on Twitter @LeanGrnBeanBlog and Instagram @TheLeanGreenBean and be sure to subscribe via RSS or email so you never miss a post!

Comments

Super informative post! I knew SEO is important but I had no idea where to start, or what things actually mattered. Thank you SO much for the tips – I feel like now I can actually start making my posts more SEO-friendly!

I think it can be difficult to find the right balance of writing for SEO and keeping it authentic. There are blogs I’ve clicked away from because it’s so obvious they are writing for SEO and SEO alone. It sounds robotic and contrived.

Very interesting! I know that SEO is important, but a lot of this stuff overwhelms me at times. I like how Danielle broke-it-down though. It actually feels as if I could make some of those positive SEO changes pretty easily.

Wow, I have much to learn about! I’ve heard about SEO before but it just sounds so over my head I’ve never taken the time to learn, I’m definitely going to try to ramp it up using some of these tips, thanks for sharing!Miche from Buttons and Birdcages

This a really great and condensed list. I have tried using the Google keyword tool but it really confuses me. Any tips on how to navigate this? Also, for the meta-description, does that get automatically populated or is there a way to fill this in for each blog post?

This is a good one!!! Thanks, Danielle & Lindsay. Especially love the google keyword tips 🙂
SEO is hard for me, and I get lazy about. I feel like it’s just so much extra thought to put into a post once you’ve already poured a ton of energy into writing it, but I can completely understand the importance. Thanks for the reminder!!!

This was a wonderful introduction to the world of SEO! Thank you for this Lindsay! I’m very excited to learn more about this as I try and actively grow my blog this year. And thank you for the introduction to Danielle!

This is really helpful info! I remember jotting down notes at blogging conferences but getting overwhelmed by all the things on my ‘to do’ list by the end of the day and then not doing much with it at all!

I research daily, trying to keep up with changes in SEO. Thank you for breaking this down in steps and showing us what the end result should look like. Helps to have a visual. Thanks, Danielle and Lindsay!

[…] Hi LGB readers! I’m thrilled to be back today with more tips on SEO and blogging. If you missed part one, I recommend checking that out first- SEO 101: How to Increase Organic Search Traffic for Blog Posts. […]

[…] planner in a different geographic location. When I was first getting started, I guest posted on The Lean Green Bean and FANNEtastic Food. They’re both RDs who have many wellness-minded entrepreneur […]

[…] a blogger who creates DIY wedding decorations. When I was first getting started, I guest posted on The Lean Green Bean and FANNEtastic Food. They’re both Registered Dietitians who have many wellness-minded […]

[…] This post originally appeared on The Lean Green Bean blog, as part two of a series. If you missed part one, I recommend checking that out first- SEO 101: How to Increase Organic Search Traffic for Blog Posts. […]

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